Photo Album Softwear

[David Sherriff]

Have any other users of this Forum got practical experience of photo album software? It seems to me that some essential requirements are:-
1. To be able to assemble your old family photo's into suitable groups, and to be able to rearrange them in the future.
2. To be able to annotate them with names, dates and places, etc. Some software allows you to annotate the photo in a separate frame, but it would be more useful to have the details actually "written electronically" onto the photo. This would be especially if you wanted to share the photo's with others.
3. Be able to share photo's and slideshows with others by e-mail, even if they do NOT have the same software.
4. Be able to create a video CD slideshow, which you could then give to other family members to play on a computer or home DVD player.
Any advice would be appreciated.

[David Sherriff]

:mad: :confused: I give up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Having spent the last hour trying to edit points 3 and 4 that keep on repeating in gobble-de-gook, that I never wrote, I am sure that you will get the general gist of my question.

[Peter Goodey]

If you're doing much with old photos, one of the Photo Shop or Paint Shop Pro products is a must-have for restoring old pix to a reasonable standard. Once you've got one of those, the choice of photo album software is a no-brainer ie get the one that goes with the image manipulation software.

I'm using Paint Shop Pro because (a) it's cheaper than Photo Shop and (b) I prefer the user interface. Jasc Paint Shop Photo Album seems to do everything you're looking for. Check whether they offer a 'try for free' version for download. Also you'd better check exactly what they include with Paint Shop Pro, I think I heard that the latest version of PSP ships with Photo Album included with it.

[Guy Etchells]

I think the main problem with your specifcations is the sharing requirement.
There are many competent graphics manipulation programs and suites but as far as I know none will allow sideshows to be shared without the host program installed.
I suppose you could use something like Serif's Drawplus/Photoplus or even Show to make web animations, which could be shared but these are not really slideshows.
The same goes for the Arcsoft suite of Photo... products, but I think to get the best out of these programs the host product has to be installed though I haven't tried their DVD slideshow product which is designed to share slideshows on DVD
Cheers
Guy

[Peter Goodey]

David

Just for you :D , I've had a look a Paint Shop Photo Album and I quote...

"Use the VCD window to create a slide show or set of multiple slide shows, select a background and music track for the VCD menu (used for multiple-show disks to select the slide show), insert text screens between photos in a slide show, and add a slide show soundtrack. Then burn the VCD and play it in a DVD player, or a computer with a CD or DVD drive."

That would seem to me to meet your requirement.

BTW I've also still got Arcsoft's album and image manipulation software on my PC but only because it came free with some hardware and I haven't got round to removing it. It's pretty useless and I can't imagine anyone actually paying money to buy it

[ziksby]

I find the best way to share images is to upload them to a site like GroveStreet, which I use for my postcards of Worcestershire.

Of course there are many other sites like photobucket, epson, and the major ISPs who provide photo sharing facilities.

I've used Arcsoft's PhotoImpression4 with my scanner/camera and it works fine for me. But I also have GIMP which I am now getting the hang of .. brilliantly written by lots of amatuer programmers and being constantly updated and added to. Whatsmore its FREE ... donations welcomed.

[David Sherriff]

Thank you to everyone who replied regarding photo album software. As soon as I made that posting to the list, I saw a comparative survey of some of the commercially available software in the December issue of PC PRO magazine.
Their favorite was Adobe Photoshop Elements 3 (requires windows 2000 or XP which counts me out), but the JASC Paint Shop Photo Album 5 got a good mention.

[Londonwhay]

Thank you to everyone who replied regarding photo album software. As soon as I made that posting to the list, I saw a comparative survey of some of the commercially available software in the December issue of PC PRO magazine.
Their favorite was Adobe Photoshop Elements 3 (requires windows 2000 or XP which counts me out), but the JASC Paint Shop Photo Album 5 got a good mention.
Hi Dave, I got the JASC 5 as a freebie on the front of a computer magazine, so keep your eyes open for what's on offer.

Glenda

[Peter Goodey]

A full version of JASC After Shot, which is a forerunner of JASC Photo Album, is included with the current edition of Digital Camera magazine.

[Ken Boyce]

Their favorite was Adobe Photoshop Elements 3 (requires windows 2000 or XP which counts me out), but the JASC Paint Shop Photo Album 5 got a good mention.[/QUOTE]

I have been using Photoshop Elements v1 with ME It came packaged with my Scanner The panoramic feature is ideal for putting screen shots together

It is a lite version of the full blown Photoshop the main difference being in the CMYK management (and the price!)

[Peter Goodey]

"The panoramic feature is ideal for putting screen shots together"

Good point. The facility to stitch images together (which comes with any decent image software), I rate as a must-have for family historians.

Records Offices that I do business with often send out A3 copies of documents even if you ask for A4. This is fair enough because old paper sizes aren't necessarily suitable for copying onto A4.

I like to keep the 'original' photocopy somewhere safe and include an A4 copy in my documentation annotated with a title and references as appropriate.

So I scan the A3 document (using my modestly priced A4 scanner) in two chunks - top and bottom. Load the two files into Paint Shop Pro and stitch them together. Then I improve the contrast and sharpness as necessary to improve legibility and reduce the image size. This gives me a A4 sized legible copy to slot neatly in the family history folder.

[Jack Richards]

Friends

As a senior citizen who has struggled to come to terms with modern technology (I have difficulty knocking a nail in a piece of wood) I have taught myself the basics of Paint Shop Pro 7 and am now confident with the product and with my achievements.

If I can handle it so can any novice - the experienced will do much better. I admit to still learning more about the product. I have no connection with the company, other than I use the product

I have many old photos (images) on my web site that I have improved. Most were very poor when I started to work on them.

I am a million miles away from being an expert with the product but I do find it reasonably easy to use and I can recommend it.

If you get a minute, take a peep at some of the images I mentioned.

Kindest regards

Jack (Richards)

[David Sherriff]

Thank you to everyone who replied regarding photo album software. As soon as I made that posting to the list, I saw a comparative survey of some of the commercially available software in the December issue of PC PRO magazine.
Their favorite was Adobe Photoshop Elements 3 (requires windows 2000 or XP which counts me out), but the JASC Paint Shop Photo Album 5 got a good mention.As a follow up, I see that "Which Magazine" recommends the Paint Shop Pro 9

[jeremyf]

David,

You could also look at Adobe Photoshop Album 2.0. The Starter version is free and covers the basics and the full version is currently £30. I'm guessing this is Photoshop Elements but without the picture editing tools.